San Gabriel Valley versus Measure R

(UPDATED, 5:45 p.m. with quotes below from South Pasadena Mayor Philip Putnam)

Two more city councils in the San Gabriel Valley resolved Wednesday to oppose Measure R: Baldwin Park and South Pasadena.

Other councils in the San Gabriel Valley that have already voted to oppose Measure R are Arcadia, Azusa, Duarte, Glendora, Irwindale, Monrovia, Pomona, San Dimas and West Covina. Measure R would raise the sales tax by a half-cent in Los Angeles County to pay for $30 billion to $40 billion in mass transit projects and road improvements, proponents say.

Here's a link to the resolution against Measure R that was provided to the Baldwin Park City Council.

The key graph in that resolution states that the San Gabriel Valley would only get 86% of the sales tax revenues the Valley generates. "By comparison, Westside Cities and South Bay cities have return rates of 142 percent and 122 percent respectively," says the resolution.

Vijay Singhal, Baldwin Park's chief executive officer, said that the city isn't opposed to raising money for transportation. "Our opposition comes from the way this whole process came around," he said. "We think that like many other cities this Measure R was not crafted with countywide consensus."

I asked him that if the city had a plan for raising money for transportation if Measure R is defeated.

"Not right now," Singhal said. "It's not about defeating Measure R. Yes, there is a [transportation] problem. All the parties need to sit down and come up with a solution that is reasonable and equitable."

He also reiterated the concern that Metro's spending plan for sales tax revenues has too many uncertainties. Officials are concerned that in the future money could be diverted away from the Valley and to projects elsewhere.

South Pasadena Mayor Philip Putnam, right, said that one reason for his opposition is that Measure R would provide more than $700 million for a tunnel for the 710 freeway to go under South Pasadena. That's a project that the city opposes because no formal environmental studies have yet been started, much less completed.

Putnam also said that Measure R provides too little for the San Gabriel Valley. "The people in our region don't see any reason to pony up money for something that won't help the fastest growing region in the county," he said, adding that he is doubtful that a tax increase will pass muster with voters anyway because of the current bad economy.

There are, of course, some other issues on the table. Many officials in the San Gabriel Valley are still upset that the Metro (MTA) Board did not decide to provide $80 million in funding toward a Gold Line extension. Gold Line proponents say that the $80 million will allow them to secure $320 million in federal funding from the Federal Transit Administration.

That's no certain thing, of course, given the dearth of federal funds for mass transit, competition for those funds from other cities and the fact that the federal government these days typically pays for less than half the cost of a project.

So what's really happening here?

San Gabriel Valley elected officials hope to show they've got some muscle by defeating Measure R. That, they believe, will give them leverage to get the $80 million for the Gold Line from the MTA Board as a condition for supporting a sales tax measure in the future -- not to mention securing more money in a future sales tax plan.

It's a plan that may work. In politics, leverage is everything.

On the other hand, if Measure R is defeated it's also fair to surmise that the MTA Board -- with just three of 13 members representing parts of the San Gabriel Valley -- will be in no mood to reward the Gold Line. As a result, the Gold Line won't get built. In fact, hardly anything mass transit-wise will get built.

In other words, residents of Los Angeles County have front row seats right now to a fascinating political fight, and one that could determine to the future of mass transit in our region for years to come.

Of course, there are always other elections. Measure R proponents wanted the sales tax hike on the ballot this year because they think it has the best shot of passing with the presidential election expected to produce a high-turnout of voters. Measure R needs two-thirds approval to pass and high-turnout elections are believed to bring enough people to the polls who are sympathetic to mass transit.

The next big election after Nov. 4 comes in November of 2010, when California will elect a governor to replace term-limited Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. After that, there will be another big one in the autumn of 2012 when Sen. John McCain, Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. Joe Biden or Gov. Sarah Palin may be running for president.

-- Steve Hymon

photo: City of South Pasadena
 

Comments

[wendy]

why not propose a 1 cent tax increase to expand the green line to LAX, AND improve public transportation and highways in the SGV? What's 1 cent?

[Kymberleigh Richards]

I don't know what I was thinking when I responded about Line 484.

calwatch is correct (he'd better be ... he lives in Pomona, where 484 ends), and in fact the first sign of trouble with Line 484 back was May 1993, when a route change to City of Industry Metrolink station was first proposed to improve the line's productivity.

The real reason 484 was cutback, though, was that the service within San Bernardino County was being funded through an agreement with Omnitrans, and in April 1995, they advised that they wanted to discontinue that funding and replace 484 with their own Line 61.

In fact, MTA (they weren't calling themselves Metro at that point) opted to continue running the 484 to the county line to provide transfers to Omnitrans, even though it meant they would be funding $137,000 of service that Omnitrans had previously paid for. (More recently, the service between Cal Poly and Pomona TransCenter was canceled, but that is a different matter.)

So yes, I misspoke earlier, but it still wasn't Metro's fault that the line was cutback, as was implied by forgotten citizen.

[Ken Alpern]

Thanks for the kind words, Kym.

Methinks the ideal world of the SGV political leadership is to get the Foothill Gold Line built and to blazes the rest of the county.

No Expo, no Subway, no Crenshaw, no Eastside Gold Line extension, and maybe a Green Line/LAX connection coupled with a Downtown Connector.

I've watched them for years, and have come to the conclusion they want NO tax increases and to shift the entirety of the meager amount of money we've got for the next decade on a Gold Line to Ontario Airport.

It's absolutely amazing to see how the same leadership have NO idea whatsoever of what their lives will be like when they'll have forced the Metro Board into shifting the entirety of the meager amount of money we've got for the next TWO decades for Expo, Crenshaw and the Downtown Connector...

...and nothing for the Foothill Gold Line.

THAT'S leadership?????

[calwatch]

Line 484 operated to ONT until 1995.

[Kymberleigh Richards]

forgotten citizen:

Line 482 is operated by Foothill Transit, not by Metro ... and has been for nearly 20 years; there was no "spinning of the operation" and 484 never went to Ontario Airport.

However, you are right about the SGV politicians only wanting the money to build the Gold Line extension and fund development alongside it. I have not heard one word from any of them as to how they would increase and restructure connecting bus service.

My friend Ken Alpern has it right.

[Ken Alpern]

Lemme summarize for a moment what the San Gabriel Valley loses should Proposition R fails:

1) Freeway improvements to the 605, 10, 210, and 710 and 60 freeways

2) Alameda Corridor East getting fast-tracked, which will establish the busiest freight corridor in the nation and gets hordes of trucks off the 60 and 10 freeways while eliminating the mind-numbing freight train slowdowns of the cross-streets that SGV residents use

3) Foothill Gold Line to Montclair, complete with rail maintenance yard that's needed to actually run a Foothill Gold Line at all (currently, their financially/politically unlikely and simplistic 80/320 Gold Line funding plan doesn't include that)

4) Eastside Gold Line extension to serve more regions of the Eastside

5) Fast-tracked Downtown Light Rail Connector to establish the connectivity of the Pasadena Gold Line and achieve the ridership that the Pasadena Gold Line Authority failed to accomplish

6) Metrolink funding increases for both operations and service to SGV residents

7) Local bus service funding for the individual cities

8) ...and, yes, the Wilshire Subway extension that so many SGV residents use

This isn't just mass hysteria on the part of the SGV political, it's dereliction of duty, and it must be brought to the public light.

[forgotten citizen]

this measure is opposed by strange mixed of groups. Groups opposed the measure for different reasons and different philosophy
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers - this group opposes tax hike. period. It is expected. It lives its own world.
Cities along the gold line foothill transit station - they just want the moeny to build gold line extension. if it does not go to Azusa, it does not care. how people are going to travel beyond gold line station, it is still planned. Typical politicians
bus Rider union - kind strange but not surprising. I used to work in Train control system software company, the Project manager told me that bus rider union oppose the construction. Being a bus rider, i concur, but I don't oppose the rail as long as good connection is provided and guarantee in the future. Otherwise for people who don't live and work near by the rail, they will never enjoy the convenience. The life still remains the same.
South Pasaden - kind strange. There is gold line in South Pasadena. Resident can easily hope into gold line (with connection bus or Pasadena Art) to the station and get to Hollywood, and SM. Then I remember, South Pasadena did not like the idea of original gold line. The reason for opposing Measure R is 700 million for a tunnel for the 710 freeway Not sure what the benefit is. I do have an idea. either use that $700 million to build the gold line all the way to Whittier or improve the bus connection even better. If we are not going to make S pasadena happier, may as well make bus rider union and me (I am not member coz I don't agree their total opposition of rail) happier

[Bruin]

I'm disappointed in my fellow SGV citizens! Everyone all over the county would benefit from Measure R. I'm a UCLA student who lives in Glendora, and I wish I could use rail to commute to Westwood. Judging from the number of UCLA vanpools originating in SGV, I'm not the only one. I'm definitely voting for it and hope other people in my area will also think through the reasons themselves instead of listening to shortsighted politicians.

[jeremy]

@forgotten citizen:
what?...

[forgotten citizen]

I just went to Metro gold Line Foothill extension. San Gabriel city does not have station. I also went to MtA. It looks like 487 and 489 are the only two buses that run in the city (people in that city please correct me). those buses are not efficiently run. I doubt any good connector bus will be operate betwen SG and future gold line station. BTW, SG Economic Partnership. Don't know the reason. It could be the conservative anti ttax group but someone has to find out. People have to understand the opposing cities do not have proper transportation. If i understand correctly, Pomona is probably the only city that has better transit. it still stinks. Used to be we can ride 484 from downtown all the way Pomona (at one time to Monteclaire and Ontario Aiport). MTA spun that operation to 482 in hope to maximize 484 bus operation. MTA 484 still stinks. 482 that goes to Pomona is even worst. Therefore, there has to better way to send people from Pomona to Downtown in between. For other cities, Foot hill transit did try to add more bus operations, but i don't think they are operated efficiently. I just analyze situation. Personally, I don't think gold line foothill extension will solve problem. The major problem is bus connection. How do we arrive at rail station? Once we get out of station, how do we reach to the work or shopping centers? The politicians and transportation (does not matter which one) either don't know or ignore that issues. The politician iwho oppose measure don't want to know also. All they want is guarantee of building extension all the way to Ontario. How people are going to get there? We'll figure out when the line is built

[jeremy]

notice how the city of san gabriel is not on that list!
we do not reflect the views and or opinions of that backwater san gabriel valley!

but seriously this idea of killing measure R so they can get the gold line is beyond ridiculous. i am extremely disappointed in the leaders from the rest of the san gabriel valley

[lsm]

Our elected "leaders" can be so short-sighted because they bet we are so short-sighted we will not remember even one full election cycle how they sold out our futures. Unless we remember to vote these myopes out of office, we have only ourselves to blame.

[Lisa M]

I live in Pasadena and .. oh dear, this is so stupid! Why must our elected "leaders" be so short-sighted? Don't they realize we go out to the westside too, and that the livability of all our lives is dependent on decent mass transit?

[CS]

If Measure R doesn't pass, I think the Gold Line will be going to the back of the line. But hey that how they wanted to play this game.

[michael kmak]

While it is seemingly unfair, mathematically, I wish some politicians would not pull these games in order to get miniature pet projects completed. Projects like the subway to the sea will have amazing trickle-down effects. If the most tense of corridors is relieved, then traffic throughout the entire region can flow more freely. Just because a project doesn't happen within one legal jurisdiction doesn't mean you have zero benefit from its construction.

[Morgan Wick]

Boo hoo. Let's get rail to people who will actually ride it - and people who COULD ride it in half-decent numbers - before we send it to the sprawling suburbs.

[Morris Jones]

This just toasts my buns. I live in Monrovia, in the San Gabriel Valley. My last four jobs have been in Westwood, West L.A., West Hollywood, and Santa Monica. It makes no sense to me to shift more money closer to my home where it will do me no good trying to navigate west side commute traffic.